Meledandri’s Illumination adds two execs

Breton, Wong-Ward take creative roles at studio

In another sign of growth at the company, Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Entertainment has hired Brooke Breton as a senior production executive and Kit Giordano as director of development.

The shingle has also upped Kristin Wong-Ward to a creative exec position.

Breton is producing the “Despicable Me” theme park attraction for Illumination that will open at Universal Studios Orlando in June 2012. She worked for several years at Lightstorm Entertainment, serving as an exec on several projects including “Avatar,” on which she was an exec producer.

Giordano most recently served as VP of Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films and was an associate producer on Sony’s “30 Minutes or Less.”

Though Meledandri has strong roots in animation and Illumination’s biggest hit thus far is the animated “Despicable Me,” Meledandri would still like to tackle live-action projects, and these hires should help the company do that.